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Topic: Buster Mc Shane (Read 23856 times)

Lastly on the subject of Buster McShane and Noel. Someone on this site mentioned they were Canadian. I did hear this back in 1950. I met their mother when visiting Buster. I never saw their father. The mother was certainly born in Belfast. Maybe something happened to the marriage in Canada. Both lads must have been brought back to Belfast at an early age for they were typical Belfast. At our young age we never discussed parents, most of were still living at home like the McShane boys. It would have been a boring subject.Buster's favourite joke told around 1950.A king and his hunting party were in the woods, along with his jester. Then suddenly the king was missing. They were very worried about him searched for hours. At last they found him but he was at his wit's end.Maybe it's not PC today. There are Shipyard and Short and Harland jokes that can not be repeated, locked away forever maybe. Buster's joke was mild compared to some of them.

My Dad was a friend of Buster's in the 50's. He too was in the Communist party at that time and also shared buster's interest in art, attending classes at Belfast Tech under, the now famous, John luke. I can still remember Buster arriving at our house in his Zephyr Zodiac in the mid 60's.

Buster and Noel went to the same school as me, before the Blitz, Ravenscroft, Buster was a year ahead of me and Noel, a year behind. They then lived next door to the School, in Uniondale Street. After the Blitz, they move to Pims Avenue, Strandtown.

My mum, Ronnie O'Hare joined Buster's gym after my dad died in 1965. Buster and Mary Peters whipped her into such good shape that she featured on some of Buster's advertising pamphlets...you know, the before and the after photos. I remember my mum telling us about the photo-shoot ! In order to make the "before" photo look worse they stuffed a jar or two of cold-cream in her arm-pits to make the arm fat stand out !!Buster was a very nice man and he ran a great gym business that was light-years ahead of its time. Mary was a bubbly, outgoing, sweet woman and a dedicated athlete. I was glued to the TV coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympics to see her win gold.

I think his Miss Ni girlfriend may have been my great aunt Muriel Porter who was miss N.Ireland for four years and she has spoken of buster and another gent by the surname brady and two others who i can not remember who were Mr N.ireland when she was miss. She is now 84 and has found memories of her time with the title and remembers them very well 😊

Buster Mc Shane owened the GYM in Glengormley he had a heart attack and passed away around 1976 I had a wee chuckle after reading the posts,all i can remember was when my friend and i had decided to go to the Gym and was introduced to Buster he said to me ,well i can see big girl you love your food.LOL